Jeholornis

Jeholornis is a genus of avialan dinosaurs that lived between approximately 122 and 120 million years ago during the early Cretaceous Period in China. Fossil Jeholornis were first discovered in the Jiufotang Formation in Hebei Province, China and additional specimens have been found in the older Yixian Formation.

Jeholornis

Morosaurus millenii · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AvesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 125.77 Mya and 113.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 4 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126.3 Mya112.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Jeholornis on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Jiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°EYixian — 41.13°N, 121.70°E

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The named rock units Jeholornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Jeholornis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Jeholornis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

35 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Jeholornis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Jeholornis

Credit
Morosaurus millenii
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAves through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhou and Zhang 2002